The Elections of The Universal House of Justice

There is little or nothing “spiritual” about Baha’i administration. It is simply a “modernist” facade on backwardness!

Bahai Elections: Confused?

The Universal House of Justice is head of the Baha’i Faith. Its permanent seat is at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, and all members reside here for the duration of their service.

The regular election of the nine members of the House of Justice occurs every five years at an international convention, held in Haifa. The most recent election was in 2008.

Till date there have been 10 elections (‘63,’68.’73,’78,’83,’88,’93, 98,’03, and ‘08) of UHJ. There have been five by-elections, in 1982, 1987, 2000, 2005 and 2010.

Amoz Gibson, Charles Wolcott, and Adib Taherzadeh died while serving. The other 13 former members were allowed by the House to resign, presumably for personal reasons of health and/or age. Five members (Hakim, Kavelin, Hofman, Chance, Ruhe and Peter Khan) have died after their retirement, while the other eight former members are alive, as of July 2011.

The previous change in membership was when two other members chose to retire in 2007. There was no by-election since they stayed on until the regular election scheduled for April 2008. Since the House of Justice is elected every 5 years, it seems that Dunbar and Khan decided to leave ‘early’ rather than wait another few years until April 2013.

Hartmut Grossmann and Glenford E. Mitchell were replaced by Shahriar Razavi and Gustavo Correa – both members of the ITC (naturally).

THE MOST IMPORTANT POINT, THOUGH, IS THAT, “THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE BODY HAS ONLY SEEN CHANGE DUE TO DEATH OR RETIREMENT: NO MEMBER HAS EVER BEEN ELECTED OFF THE UHJ.”

This clearly indicates that a SELECTION PROCESS is operating behind the scene.

A-UHJ membership and International Teaching Centre

1-The most important trend is that we have, since 2008, a membership drawn completely from the ITC – which itself is appointed by the Universal House of Justice. So in essence, there is a closed loop with the UHJ appointing its future candidates. This also shows that ITC acts as screening committee for future UHJ members.

2-By having UHJ members constantly elected from the ITC, it is almost a type of silent campaigning going on. These individuals are given a visible role in front of NSA’s whereas any normal Baha’i out there would never stand a chance to be known. This guarantees no fresh blood- new Baha’is who are outside of the loop of administration who could possibly bring in a different perspective. Hence you only get people who are inside the system who will perpetuate the same thought patterns. And you get these people because they are the only ones paraded in front of the NSA’s!

3-These special group of people (ITC) are given a platform where they and only they are seen right there and then by a group of people who are about to vote. No other Baha’i, no matter how great his/her service, will ever have that same opportunity to be seen. This is done with a purpose. What happens is that the selection of a group of people that are called future members of House of Justice? This SELECTION PROCESS is called as DIVINELY ORDAINED ELECTION.

4- The members of the ITC are in fact given a geographic mandate, just like the UHJ members themselves, and travel extensively to meet with the NSA’s around the world. They also meet with other parts of the administration and the community at times to give speeches, attend events, etc.

5-Being on the ITC gives an unparalleled platform for visibility and access to NSA’s – (Vote Bank!!). Appointment on ITC is also an indication to the electors that the House is keen in electing these people only.

6-The UHJ election process is obviously fixed. The ITC members are pre-screened for ideological purity and are then provided with unparalleled exposure which obviates the need for explicit campaigning.

B-UHJ membership and Iranians

Presented below is an interesting piece of statistic:

No.

Name

Years

Total years

Years of Iranians

Nationality

1

Charles Walcott

63-88

25

2

Amoz Gibson

63-83

20

3

Hushmand Fatheazam

63-03

40

40

Iranian

4

Hugh Chance

63-93

30

5

Borrah Kavelin

63-88

25

6

Ian Sample

63-08

45

7

Lutfullah Hakim

63-68

05

05

Iranian

8

David Hofman

63-88

25

9

Ali Nakhjawani

63-03

40

40

Iranian

10

David S. Ruhe

68-93

25

11

Glenford Mitchell

82-08

26

12

Adib Taherzadeh

88-03

15

15

Iranian

13

Hooper Dunbar

88-09

21

14

Peter Khan

87-09

21

15

Douglas Martin

93-99

06

16

Farzam Arbab

93-…

18

18

Iranian

17

Kiser Barnes

00-…

11

18

Harmut Grossman

03-08

05

19

Firayduon Javaheri

03-…

08

08

Iranian

20

Paul Lample

05-…

06

21

Payman Mohajer

05-…

06

06

Iranian

22

Shahriar Razavi

08-…

03

03

Iranian

23

Gustavo Correa

08-…

03

24

Mr. Stephen Birkland

10-…

01

25

Mr. Stephen Hall

10-…

01

TOTAL YEARS 431 135

C-ANALYSIS

1-Till today there are 25 members who have been elected on UHJ for different duration, out of which 8 members are of Iranian origin. This amounts to 31.5% which is reasonable very high for just one country. The Cradle of the Faith gets priority!!The present UHJ has 4 Iranian members and the percentage is 44%.

2-The total number of years by all the 25 members who have served on UHJ is 431 years out of which the 8 Iranian members share is 135 years which comes out to be again 31.3 %. Strange coincidence, isn’t it?

3-When comparison of Iranian Baha’i population with respect to World Baha’i population is done it is again found to be 30%, which puts everything in its proper perspective. (30,000 Iranian Baha’is against 1, 00000 total Baha’i populations.)

Till today there have been 26 members from International Teaching Centre, out of which 6 were Iranians .Percentage 23%.

If we take account of all the members of NSAs of the world, the percentage of Iranian Baha’is on the NSAs of different countries will be approximately between 25% to 30%.

Even for the 85 continental board of Counselors appointed all over the world, the percentage of Iranian counselors will be near the same percentage.

CONCLUSION

This clearly shows that Baha’i Faith is Iranian dominated Faith where the citizens of other countries are enrolled to work under and for the Iranians.

Baha’i administration has a distinct Iranian culture of domination and tendencies toward predatory corporatism. It is deeply anti-democratic and anti-progressive.

In reality these Iranians, who rise to the top of Haifan Baha’i Administration are only proficient and successful at one thing: perpetuating dysfunctional organizational culture, lies and abuse of authority. For example, Mr.Payman Mohajir (of Iranian background) has propagated that by 2021 there will be 50 million Baha’is all over the world. An extreme case of delusion.

There is little or nothing “spiritual” about Baha’i administration. It is simply a “modernist” facade on backwardness!

One Response to The Elections of The Universal House of Justice

The vote-counting itself: Absentee ballots are sent by mail or carried by delegates.
In the case of mailed votes there is no guarantee whatsoever that the Israeli Postal Authority (by order of the Israeli Government/Mossad) does note manipulate the elections as well. They can change the votes in favor of their own candidates! It would take less than 30 minutes for the Israeli Government to do it with sealed or diplomatic pouches (I have seen a documentary on how it’s done on TV). There is absolutely no control or audit on this part by the Baha’is. I asked them this question with utmost care and good intention (for the integrity of the Faith itself) but they “acted guilty” by not responding to this fair concern, as if this backdoor was left “open” intentionally. A few votes re-directed at the same person can make all the difference since altogether there are about 1,200 votes (including 500 absentee votes – ball park figure for last elections according to bahai.org). Each elected member receives a relatively small percentage of votes compared to political elections since there is no campaigning allowed.